Open thread: Man in charge of America’s biggest city to discuss importance of regulating soda-pop portions at 5:30 ET; Update: Video added

posted at 5:06 pm on March 11, 2013 by Allahpundit

The news is slow enough today that I’m guessing one or more of the cable news nets will carry his press conference/tantrum live at 5:30. Here’s your thread for commenting if you’re in front of a TV. He’s already vowed to appeal today’s decision because, incredible though it may sound, the outcome of this clusterfark will represent a key element in the legacy of a guy who became one of richest men in history and got himself elected mayor of New York three times. This is the hill he’s chosen to die on politically. Meditate on that fact while you wait.

I’m embedding a copy of the New York court’s decision below in case you haven’t seen it elsewhere. Skip to pages 27-28 for the key bit. The judge isn’t saying that NYC can’t do something idiotic and arbitrary; he’s saying that, if they want to do it, it has to be done democratically. Bloomberg can’t act unilaterally, through the Board of Health, to take preventive action against “chronic diseases” like obesity. If he wants to crack down on mocha frappuccinos, the City Council needs to pass something. Which, New York being a one-party town that answers to Bloomberg, normally wouldn’t be difficult except for the fact that, ironically, Bloomy’s made himself sufficiently ridiculous on this subject that he may have sparked a popular backlash. In fact, the City Council speaker — who’s a frontrunner to succeed him as mayor — has already expressed skepticism about it. That’s why he’s appealing. Even in a solidly Democratic city, he might not be able to get this thing passed.

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“The judge isn’t saying that NYC can’t do something idiotic and arbitrary; he’s saying that, if they want to do it, it has to be done democratically. Bloomberg can’t act unilaterally, through the Board of Health, to take preventive action against “chronic diseases” like obesity.”

Napoleon brought about the formal abolition of serfdom through Western Europe and the German states (it had already ended in France itself). This creep oversteps his bounds in order to make us all slaves.

At the entrance to every government building in every country should be a giant sign that says:“We may be the government, but that does not mean we know what we are doing or that what we are doing is the right thing to do.”

At least for a brief period in the mid-1990s, some brands of malt liquor, including Olde English 800, Crazy Horse, and Mickey’s, were available in even larger, 64-ounce glass bottles. Forty-ounce bottles are not permitted in some US states, such as Florida, where the largest container that a malt beverage may be sold at retail is 32 US fluid ounces.[8]

For once, I actually look forward to watching Morning Joe tomorrow. I can’t wait to watch Mika scream on TV, shaking her head in disbelief and tear rolling down her check when she reads the NYT editorial blasting the judicial decision.

To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harrassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed, and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.

There is a phrase called “jump the shark” loosely defined as the point when a politician passes their relevance expiration date. Bloomberg has jumped so many sharks now that he is the laughing stock of the entire US, and what does NYC have to look forward to post Bloomberg, Christine Quinn, who makes Bloomberg look perfectly reasonable.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C. S. Lewis

That’s because they agree with him and are just like him. They are all busy-body fascist authoritarians who want to tell everyone how to live, what to do and not to do, and what to think and not think.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C. S. Lewis

dont taze me bro on March 11, 2013 at 6:07 PM

Of course, Bloomberg is the worst of both worlds, a “robber baron” who wants to be one of the “omnipotent moral busybodies.”

I have another idea for him and NYC. It’s widely known that money is the root of evil. Let’s help Bloomberg and take away all his money above the national average wage. He might complain and it will be a bit controversial, but it will be for his own good even if he doesn’t know it yet.

Bloomberg can’t act unilaterally, through the Board of Health, to take preventive action against “chronic diseases” like obesity. If he wants to crack down on mocha frappuccinos, the City Council needs to pass something.